Doctor on hand in spirited gathering, look (9)
I believe the answer is:
semblance
'look' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'doctor on hand in spirited gathering' is the wordplay.
'doctor' becomes 'mb' (Bachelor of Medicine, Medicinae Baccalaureus).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hand' becomes 'L' (abbreviation for left, as in the left-hand side).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'spirited gathering' becomes 'seance' (gathering for communicating with spirits).
'mb'+'l'='mbl'
'mbl' inserted within 'seance' is 'SEMBLANCE'.
(Other definitions for semblance that I've seen before include "Air" , "Outward show" , "Appearance, likeness" , "Outward likeness" , "Apparent form" .)